


Target Practice 2

by Crack_Alchemist



Series: Les Basiers [5]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Academy, F/M, Protection, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-31
Updated: 2015-03-31
Packaged: 2018-03-20 15:04:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3654798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crack_Alchemist/pseuds/Crack_Alchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He didn't need to learn to use a gun.  Really.  Did he?</p>
<p>Prompt Words: Desire to Live</p>
            </blockquote>





	Target Practice 2

 

 

He was the _Flame Alchemist_ , or didn’t they know that?  He didn’t need to have any bloody weapons training.  Especially at the crack of dawn, after a night of illicit drunken revelry and cards with that low-down, dirty cheat Maes Hughes.

But, of course, it wasn’t his choice what the military wanted him trained in, and of course they knew who he was.  That was probably the reason he was standing here in the firing range with ten other poor souls up before the first light, listening to a cruel man with a square head yelling at them about their uniforms and telling them about the inner workings of the firearms clutched in cold fingers.

Like he needed to know all about what made a gun go boom.  He knew how to make _thin air_ go boom.  Bullets, for him, were irrelevant.  He couldn’t manipulate them, not with severe consequences, so he had no use for them.  He let those who cared about them work with them.  If needed to take an enemy out, all _he_ needed to do was snap his fingers and–,

“ _Mustang!_ ” Roy almost peed his pants when the man shouted directly in his face.  “Think you’re too good to pay attention, little State Alchemist?”

Roy cringed against the covert titters among the other students.  It was too early in the morning for reminders that he wasn’t the most popular person at Amestris Military Academy.  He looked up into the hard eyes of the instructor with a muttered, “No, sir...”

“I didn’t hear you, State Alchemist!”

“I said _no, sir!_ ” He yelled back.  He hated drill instructors with every fiber of his being.  All of them, every single one of them, thought that they had to make an example of him, and those like him, just because of the silver watch that hung from their belts.

“Damned right, you’re no better than the rest of us!” The instructor growled.  Pacing up the line of students, he stopped at one.  “Hawkeye, step forward!”

Roy’s eyebrows crawled into his hairline.  He should have paid better attention.  He had absolutely _no_ idea that _she_ was in this class.  And what exactly was she doing in this class anyway?  She was a lowerclassman!

“Cadet Hawkeye, please show our precious _State Alchemist_ that he’s no better than the rest of us.”  The man pointed out at a target that Roy could barely see. 

“Don’t stand there playing with your pocket watch, boy!”  More titters.  It took everything in Roy’s power not to jump as the man barked his orders.   “Step forward and present arms!”

Roy did as he was told, and moved until he was about six paces away from the cadet.  He shakily raised his weapon.  He looked over at her from the corner of his eye and wanted to cringe again, mortified.  Damned if she wasn’t the same height as him.  And here he was, five years her senior.  To anyone looking, they would have been evenly matched.  But, he knew, and the instructor knew, they were anything but.

“Hawkeye, present arms and fire at will!”

She didn’t even take a good breath.  She simply lifted her gun, placed her hand under the butt of the damned thing, wrapped her finger around the trigger and fired.  Her expression never changed, and she never looked over at him.

Roy sighed to himself as the instructor looked down at the poor sod who had the unenviable task of checking the target.

“Bull’s-eye.”  The instructor turned his glare on Roy again.  “Mustang, present arms and fire at will.”

He lifted his pistol and tried to sight down the barrel liked he’d been taught.  It was pointless, really, because all he saw was a blurry thing that looked like a human being.  He yanked the trigger, involuntarily shutting his eyes as the gun went off.  And that was why he hated firing a weapon.  Every time, no matter how much he tried, he always, _always_ shut his eyes when he fired.  It was stupid, looked stupid, and he knew the instructor would comment on it.

He opened his eyes and waited for the inevitable.  It seemed to take forever.

“Mustang, perhaps if you _looked where you were shooting_ , you might have actually _hit_ the target.”

Again, those painful titters, and he wanted to sink into the ground.  Actually, he wanted to incinerate the lot of them, but he knew that would have gotten him a quick trip to the brig.  Or worse.

Besides, he tried to tell himself, he was a soldier, an _alchemist_ , even.  He could take his lumps with the best of them.  He straightened his shoulders and gave the instructor an implacable look that made the man actually blink in surprise.

“Hawkeye!” The instructor barked.  “Again!”

The girl raised her gun, and again, hit the target dead center. 

The instructor stepped to stand behind Roy, right over his right shoulder.  “C’mon, Mustang,” the man taunted.  “Show us all that you fancy boys with your shiny pocket watches are made of better stuff than the rest of us.  That all that _book learning_ beats out honest-to-goodness, get-your-hands-dirty hard work.”

_He’s your superior,_ Roy reminded himself, _and you can’t turn him into barbeque fuel_.

“Present arms and fire like someone has a rifle pointed down your throat and you have an intense desire to live beyond your next breath.”  The man leaned forward and whispered in his ear.  “It’s either you or them.”

“I wouldn’t use a gun, sir,” Roy muttered, then wanted to bite his tongue.

“ _What?_ ”

He winced, knowing he deserved to have his eardrums split.  “I would use my alchemy and beat them before they even closed in on me.”

“Well, you’re not going to use your precious _alchemy_ while I’m standing here!”  The instructor roared, almost ruffling the front of Roy’s hair.  He got completely into Roy’s personal space, until Roy could smell the coffee on the man’s breath.  “And if you shut your eyes again, they’re all going to laugh at you again,” he hissed.  “Can’t have that, now can we, Flame Alchemist?”  Then he moved behind Roy again.

If the muscles in Roy’s jaw grew any more rigid, they would snap.  He raised the gun and did as the man told him.  He even managed to keep his eyes open.

The instructor stepped away and waited for the report. 

“Right through the forehead, sir!” came the faint report.

Roy held himself still, not even allowing himself to smile.  He did look quickly at her, though.  Her expression, too, was blank.  Nothing told him what she thought of his shooting prowess.

“That’s better.”  The instructor moved to stand in front of him and poked a finger in Roy’s shoulder.  “Never, _never_ let your enemy’s taunts be proven in the heat of battle.  Never let the behavior of others affect your performance, no matter who they are.  You react with emotion and you will almost surely fail. If a little girl like Cadet Hawkeye can get that, surely a man full grown as yourself can grasp the concept. Lesson is over for the day.”  The man looked at the assembled.  “All of you be here at the same time tomorrow.  Class dismissed!”

Roy listened to the others scramble away and stared at the back of the instructor’s head and did everything in his power to keep his _emotions_ under control.  Finally, all was quiet and he looked down at the gun in his hand, wanting to fling it to the other side of the range.  Bullets, to him, were irrelevant anyway, he thought mutinously.

“A suggestion, sir.”

He almost jumped out his skin.  Turning, he half-glared at the girl still standing next to him.  “What, Cadet?” He barked.

“When you finally command your own unit, sir, make sure you have someone at your back who is a much better shot than yourself.”

He looked closer and, yes, there it was.  The tiniest smile at the corner of her pretty little mouth.  “Oh, yeah?  Well, Cadet, do you know what I can do without the benefit of one of these cursed things?” he said, drawing himself up to his full height and staring her directly in her eye.  “All I need to do, Cadet, is snap my fingers like so,” and he did so, “and I can raze everything from here to there,” and he pointed toward the target, “No effort, no thought.”

“I am well aware of your extraordinary... abilities,” she said, her face still straight except for that little smile.  “But... what will you do when it rains?  As I recall, fire and water do not mix.  Sir.”  She holstered her weapon and saluted her upperclassman as was proper.

And she was gone, and he was dumbfounded yet again.


End file.
